Bollywood: History, Language and Gender

Relevant Languages
Urdu (most formal)/Hindi (normal) Punjabi (more informal) English (cool)

Miriam Butt November 2006

Bombay Hindi, Dialects (regional color)

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History: Urdu/Hindi
The name Urdu or Oordoo originally meant camp, short for zaban-i-urdu language of the camp. The word Urdu comes from Turkish ordu, which is related to Horde.
Oxford English Dictionary

History of the Moghuls

Timurid Dynasty (= Mongols) 1556-1857 Genghis Khan Founder of Moghul Dynasty: Religion: Islam. Religions already present in India: Hindus, Muslims (Schia and Sunni), Jews (since Antiquity), Parsis (Zarathustra, since 8th cent.), Buddhists (since antiquity) a.o.
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Timurlane Babur

Reminds one of the Mongols

History of the Moghuls

BABUR (1526-30) ! took North India from Afghanistan (Kabul). Was crowned in Agra, which became a capital city of the Moghul Empire.

History of the Moghuls

HUMAYUN (1530-1556) consolidated the empire, quelled the rebelling Afghans, but then slipped, fell and died in his library.

From the Autobiography Babur Nama

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History of the Moghuls

AKBAR (1556-1605) ! known for integration of religions: Hindu, Muslim und Sikh.

History of the Moghuls

JAHANGIR (1605-27) ! married to Nur Jahan, one of the most powerful women of the time. Buried in Lahore.

History of the Moghuls

SHAH JAHAN (1628-58) ! Height of Empire. Modern Ergative case was found first in this time.

History of the Moghuls

AURANGZEB (1658-1707) ! fanatical Muslim. Literature and Art were curtailed, but Empire hat its greatest area. No great emperors came after him.

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Urdu/Hindi
Urdu
Spoken by: Spoken in: Differences: mainly Muslims Pakistan and India

Urdu/Hindi
Hindi
mainly Hindus India 1872 Beames Comp. Gram. Aryan Lang. I. 39: By a curious caprice, Hindi, when it uses Arabic words, is assumed to become a new language, and is called by a new name Urdu.
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Dialects of the same language Urdu (vocabulary) is the declared/historic language of poetry/love, hence important for Bollywood.

No structural ones (lexicon, a few sounds)

draxt tree /f/ (filem), /x/ (xuda)

pe tree
no /f/ (philem), /x/ (khuda)
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Urdu/Hindi
Example: Riddles/Poets by Amir Khusro (1253-1325). Hindi Urdu

You prepared the kheer (rice pudding) with much hard work and lit up the lamp. The dog came and ate it all, nothing for you now than to sit and play the drum.
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Language
Basic Primer on Urdu/Hindi (see extra sheet) 1. Words for Love/Heart 2. Religion (Deities/Greetings) 3. Significance of Names (Religion/Tribes/Caste) 4. Basic Sentence Structure (Topic/Focus) 5. 6. 7. 8. Pronouns Case Verbs (Gender, etc.) Basic Vocabulary
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Language and Gender

Gender Related Differences? 1. Supposedly more use of hum we 2. Less rapid topic changes 3. Interruptions? 4. Exclamations of Despair (ye nahiiN ho sakta!)? 5. Tag Questions (hai na?)? 6. Adjectives? Diminutives? 7. Swear Words or Words of Violence?
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Code-Switching
A lot of code-switching goes on all the time 1. Between dialects/languages 2. Main one that is easy to notice is English/Hindi Question: who does it and why? Gender differences? For general linguistic background on Code-switching, see Susanne Romaines book Bilingualism.
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Movie Clips
K3G: 2nd Scene, Codeswichting K3G: Rich boy meets poor girl (use of Punjabi) Kahoo Na Pyaar Hai: Urdu Sickness Kahoo Na Pyaar Hai: Hindi dialect

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